Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	father_n	person_n	trinity_n	2,522	5	9.8786	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35020	The general history of the Quakers containing the lives, tenents, sufferings, tryals, speeches and letters of the most eminent Quakers, both men and women : from the first rise of that sect down to this present time / being written originally in Latin by Gerard Croese ; to which is added a letter writ by George Keith ...	Croese, Gerardus, 1642-1710.; Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1696 (1696)	Wing C6965; ESTC R31312	344,579	528

this theme as if he had aim'd at no other design then to bring in some and play upon others with a few frothy flowrishes of words This is the matter of fact The Parliament made it their purpose and endeavour to give Liberty of Conscience to such as I have Nam'd A Committee of a select number of the house was order'd to treat of this affair They when doubting of the Quakers Doctrine and saith concerning the sacred Scripture and mystery of the holy Trinity because they use not to call the Scripture the word of God thinking that name to be proper only to Christ or to the internal word of God under which sense external Letters can never fall nor to term the Father Son and Spirit three persons that being a word not used in Scripture ordered their Articles and opinion to be presently inquired into Two famous Quakers at that time Geo. Withad and John Virughton treated of these matters with Sir Tho. Clargy a member of the house He advis'd 〈◊〉 with Kindness and Candour to publish their mind fully and fairly concerning these two Articles that were doubted of They without delay write and subscribe their Thoughts and willingly presented 'em to that honourable Man from whom as they had received a wholsom Advice they now also expect a seasonable assistance The form of each of 'em for himself was to this purpose I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth the sacred Scriptures to be Divine left us by Men Inspir'd of God as an exact rule of our faith and behaviour and I profess to believe in one only God who is the father and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son very God and very Man and in the Holy Spirit one and the same God with the Father and Son blessed for evermore This confession having pleas'd Clargy was given to be read to the rest of the Members who thought fit to call in some nine or ten Quakers that were ready at hand for such a design to question 'em if that were their faith and perswasion Upon their owning it the day following the matter was presented by the Committee to the whole house and thus it was agreed that the Quakers shou'd have liberty and order'd it shou'd be recorded and drawn out into an Act. While publick affairs were thus changed W. Penn was not so regarded and respected by King and Court as he was formerly by King James partly because of his intimacy with King James and partly for adhering to his old opinion concerning the Oath of fidelity which was now mitigated but not abrogated Besides this it was suspected that Penn Corresponded with the late King now Lurking in France under the umbrage and protection of the French King an enemy justly and equally odious to the Brittish King and united Provinces 'twixt whom there was now an inveterate War This suspicion was follow'd and also encreas'd by a Letter intercepted from King James to Penn desiring Penn to come to his assistance in the present State and Condition he was in and express the Resentments of his favour and benevolence Upon this Penn being cited to appear was ask'd why King James wrote unto him he answer'd he cou'd not hinder such a thing being further question'd what Resentments these were which the late King seem'd to desire of him he answer'd he knew not but said he supposed King James wou'd have him to endeavour his Restitution and that tho he cou'd not decline the suspicion yet he cou'd avoid the guilt and since he had loved King James in his prosperity he shou'd not hate him in his adversity yea he lov'd him as yet for many favours he had conferr'd on him tho he wou'd not joyn with him in what concern'd the State of the Kingdom He own'd he had been much oblig'd to King James and that he wou'd reward his kindness by any private office as far as he cou'd observing inviolably and intirely that duty to the publick and Government which was equally Incumbent upon all Subjects and therefore that he had never the vanity to think of endeavouring to restore him that Crown which was fallen from his head so that nothing in that Letter cou'd at all seem to fix guilt upon him From that time Penn withdrew himself more and more from business and at length at London in his own house confin'd himself as it were to a voluntary exile from the converse fellowship and conference of others employing himself only in his Domestick affairs that he might be devoted more to Meditation and Spiritual exercises In the year Ninety three two books of his came out in English the one of a Solitary life the other a Key to understand the Articles of the Quakers faith This year Penn went out of his voluntary Prison compensing the leisure of his lonely life by the comfort of Marriage which he now entred into and the greater toil he took on himself in managing all his business and affairs Geo. Fox also after many changes and vici●●itudes having seen various chances and dangers after he had often been Anxious concerning the progress and continuance of his life now not doubting to Consummate and end his Labours in the beginning of Ninety one resign'd up his Life After his Death his Widdow Margaret an old woman of about 76 years who had shar'd with him in the office of preaching wrote thus to a General Meeting of women held at London that same year Most Dear Friends and Sisters in the Lord I Did not scruple to write unto you from the Sense of that which was from the beginning which now is and for ever shall be and that for your great Love and care of me and the half of my self my Husband as long as he labour'd among you for the Lord. Since he 's now entred into Rest and heavenly Glory if we 'll regard what he said while he was alive let 's fix our constant Dependance upon God Neither doubt I if we walk with that Spirit of Life and Strength he had but we shall be preserv'd even unto the end In the mean time growing up and bearing fruit unto the Lord we shall become Trees Justice to the praise and Glory of God Wherefore I do earnestly warn and exhort you to abide constantly in the service of God for ye shall certainly reap the reward of much Consolation in this World and of an eternal Recompence in that which is to come Farewell and joyn with me in praising of God Fox not long before he died by the Interposal of certain Friends and Amanuenses's wrote a large book in English only with reference to what concern'd himself during the time he labour'd among his friends in the Ministry and provided by his latter will it shou'd be carefully Printed and a Coppy of it sent to all the yearly and Quarterly Meetings of his Friends wherever gather'd together throughout the whole World in Remembrance of him and for their particular Advantage The book was publish'd being strengthen'd

these things to Heart who shun them and who being mindful of Humane Frailty and of their Duty enjoyned them by God and being intent and building upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone bear with such things as are to be born with and study to promote Peace and Unity and hate every Name of Distinction imposed by Man in the Church of God and desire neither to make nor follow Parties are branded as if they were ignorant and slothful having no regard to their own Matters and Concerns so far forth as if to be indifferent and of neither Party were become now as it were a new Sect and that Law of Solon revived who commanded him to be punished who in the time of Sedition joined himself to neither Party Which sort of Men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovers of themselves puffed up as they are called in Scripture turbid and boyling hot neither is this a Foreign Appellation but such as is also applyed to them in the Sacred Code when they raise more Commotions about a thing of nothing than there are Storms in the Aegean or most boisterous Seas but hereof there is fully enough said to the wise but to you Great Sir too much And this I judge my self obliged further to say that perhaps there may be some who having a just Esteem and right Judgment of this Work would for the further Estimation thereof have me here and there quote and set down in the Margin of the Book the Authorities and Testimonies whereon I ground each Particular to which Persons seeing their Conceptions hereon are not without Reason I make this Answer That if I should not do it I do not thereby swerve from the usage of Historians in all Ages neither is there indeed any need that a Man should gain a belief of what he offers this way when he is not conscious to himself of any falsity and that there is nothing that can derogate from or lessen his Credit therein Neither was I willing in this Work which I was desirous should prove acceptable as much for the Brevity as Truth of it so without ceasing to interrupt and break off the Thread of my Story or to disorder and delay my Reader But yet I do not always omit such sort of Testimonies But otherwise I can be bold to affirm that there is nothing of any moment throughout the whole Work that hath not been done in the face of the Sun that is either in the presence of Men or in Solemn Judicatories even where there has been no exclusion of the Populacy and such as has not been frequent in the mouths of many laid open by the chief Magistrates and Printed for the Knowlege of such as were absent and to perpetuate the same to Posterity as for other things I take but little notice of them and if at any time I recount any such I do it in such a way as may gain certain Credit But no more of this to return therefore to you Right Noble and Great Sir As to the Reason that induced me to Present and Dedicate this my Treatise to Your Honour it was this That there might remain some sort of Testimony upon Record not so much of the knowledge I have had of you which is as far backwards as I can remember as of the Favour you have always shewed me and of those Benefits you have made it your Business to heap upon me both at home and abroad and which I have deemed both Just and Honourable for me to accept being freely offered and by no means to reject and withal of the Gratitude Propensity and Devotedness of my Mind towards you And though I have here a great Opportunity offered to me to Celebrate your Vertues yet I shall forbear lest I should incur the censure either of being unskilful in Praises or what is base the Name of Flatterer besides that your Name has long since gained such Esteem and is so Famous among all that it has no need of any Encomiums and Embellishments of mine the things themselves bespeak it For to say nothing of the Endowments of your Mind as being such though most rare especially in so propitious and agreeable a Fortune as are not conspicuous to all Men and are more private those Famous Monuments that you have partly published even in your blooming Years and which do yet in part lie hid within the more secret and inner recesses of your Study which all of the Republick of Learning that have seen or known them have so approved of as to judge them no ways inferiour to what hath been extant of yours but to deserve as much you to the Protection of the Almighty praying to him that while you Rule in his Name submit to and obey the Divine Majesty he would heap upon you more and more all manner of Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly things in Christ Jesus and beg leave to subscribe my self Your Honour 's Most Humble And most devoted Servant Gerard Croese Reverendo admodum Viro GERARDO CROESIO Cum Historiam quam vocat Quakerianam luci exponeret O Insularum gloria plurimas Experta turbas O variantibus Subjecta fatis tremendi Tot furiis agitata belli Britanna tellus dissidiis quoque Sanctam tuorum dilacerans fidem Vt volvit incertosque longè Oceanus glomerat furores Vicinas acri turbine fluctuum Versas frequenter fluxa subit vic●● Exempla non vanis supersunt Indiciis Memoret vetustas Inscripta fastis Relligio gemet Divulsa Sectis En specimen recens En callidos Foxi sequaces Quos Tremulos patrio vocavit Sermone Index Derbraicae Domus Enthusiasticas insolito genus Quod spiritu raptum piorum Christiadum stupuere turmae Horum involutas narrat origines Qui jure primas Croesius hic tenet Latéque divisum disertis Prosequitur populum papyris Vel digna tanto saecla Saturnia O si redirent illa forent viro Vel dignior natas recenter Croesius incoluisse terras Adrianus Reeland The Contents of the First BOOK THE beginning and scope of the whole Work The Name of the Quakers as also of Enthusiasts What Antiquity these Men assume to themselves Their Opinion concerning the Doctrine of the Fathers and of the Reformation of the Church England their Country G Fox their first Author and Leader His condition when a Boy His Youthful Studies Fox a Shooemaker Fox his love to the Holy Scripture A Voice to him from Heaven His Endeavours He is raised up with the hopes of becoming a Minister His Expostulating continually with the Preachers of the Word He enters upon the Office of Preaching People flock to hear him He is put into Prison at Nottingham The Miracles of the growing Church of the Quakers Their meanness Fox thrust into the Correction House at Derby There the Name of Quakers was given to the Sect Fox is sollicited to enter into the Wars His Speech upon that occasion Fox his perseverance in Preaching His first Letter of the many he wrote

Doctrine Religion and way of Living from God himself whom his own Infallible Oracles term The Ancient of Days and from his Word first delivered from Heaven and then committed to Writing by the inspired Men of God which is the only Rule and Ground of all Truth They likewise Appeal to the Ancient Fathers or to the Testimony of those Books that we hold for true unanimously consenting to and asserting the same very things that they with the Holy Scriptures maintain When I say Fathers I speak after our way of speaking not after the manner of the Quakers who admit no such Names But by those called by us Fathers they understand the Writers who lived in the first and second Centuries after Christ For they conceive those who lived nighest to the Times of the Primitive Apostles that compiled the Holy Writings to have deliver'd their Doctrine with more Integrity than those who lived later who the further distant they be from the Times of the Apostles the more is their Sincerity and Integrity to be called in question like Water that the further it runs from its Fountain the more muddy it grows And therefore it is that they pay but little deference to those who lived in the later Ages of the Church freely acknowledging many things to be contain'd in their Writings that are justly to be rejected nor do they ever quote their Testimony except it be very conducive to the establishment of what they advance If therefore at any time others who are unacquainted with their Doctrines and Conversations or possess'd with Prejudice Envy or Hatred against them do at any time go about to brand them with these ignominious and opprobrious Names they if called to give a distinct Account of themselves do assume the Names of Christians Evangelick Apostolick Catholiek Men as if the Doctrine and Religion preached by them were the same as was delivered at first by Christ himself to the Apostles publish'd throughout the whole World by the Ministry of these his Apostles and embrac'd and retain'd by all the Faithful and Godly of all Ages whom Custom has term'd Catholick And upon this Account in all Debates they recur to the Scriptures not declining the Comparison of their Tenets with those of the Ancienter Fathers nay nor those of later times It follows next that unto what I have said I should subjoin some Account of the Sect that these Men so much follow inviting all Christians to do the same Their Sentiments therefore run in this strain That since the Doctrines and Manners of all Christians as also and consequently of those called Protestants likewise have been for so long a time corrupted and perverted it would seem that Apostacy and Defection from the Apostolick Doctrine and Discipline had its first beginnings in the Times of the Apostles themselves and from thenceforth did by degrees increase till it came to its perfect height in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries and from that time forth having confirm'd and harden'd it self through the firm and constant continuance for so many Ages so that no hope of its removal was remaining did so continue till this very Age we now live in Though add they in all this Series of Time there was always one or other in every Century that appear'd and declar'd against this their General Defection but without any Success as also to their own disadvantage and detriment And thus do they imagine of those great Men called by us the Reformers that all their Endeavours for the Restauration of Religion and Purity tended indeed to overthrow the Falshood Lightness and Vanity of Men but not to establish Truth or introduce Gravity of Life and Manners by restoring these Vertues to their Primitive Lustre and Splendor much like unto those that throw down their old Habitation and never think of building up a new one Moreover their Opinion of those who came after the First Reformers is that while they imagin'd to themselves that what they did tended to the advancement of a Reformation it proved diametrically opposite to the same for that in lieu of the Vices and Errors which polluted and defiled the Church that were corrected and rooted out by them they introduced other new ones of their own Invention like Men cleansing a House that cast out the Filth so as to let more come in So that these Men Preach up their Religion for the ancientest as having flourish'd in the first Golden Age of the Church which was afterwards from the very first rise of the Christian Name even unto this our Age miserably mangled and corrupted and in fine quite demolish'd until at length it was retriev'd and restor'd to its Ancient Purity by them being incited and raised up by the Divine Spirit to recover fallen Religion for the Salvation of all Men. Wherefore 't is that in all their Writings this is distinctly treated of having prefix'd as a Title to their Chapters that They as the Servants of Jesus Christ are called and raised up by God for dispensing the Gospel which after so long and dark a Night of Apostacy is now again come to light to be preach'd unto all Nations And thus do they Accuse Condemn and set at nought the Doctrines manner of Worship Rites Ceremonies nay the whole Life and Conversation not only of all these general Christians but of the Protestants who boast so much of their departing from that great Apostacy and cleansing themselves from the Babylonish and Papal De●ilements Unto whom they oppose their Doctrine Worship and way of Life which indeed are such that their Doctrine is for a great part of it new or taken from some Ancient Opinions condemn'd and rejected by the Church which having lain so long dormant are revived anew by them and as to the rest 't is a Medley or Hotch-potch of the several Opinions of Protestants though not radically agreeing with them their Worship is diametrically Opposite to that of ours and their manner of Life so singular that between their Conversation and that not only of Protestants but of all Christians there is as vast a difference as possibly can be And these are the Tenets they have so busily spread abroad both at their first rise and in the further progress of the Sect and all of 'em that are capable either of speaking or writing Publickly do diligently apply themselves in all places to the Explaining Defending and Propagating their Doctrines inveighing and railing against the contrary Opinions of others with as bitter and reviling Expressions as they can invent and such their Accusatory Libels are dispersed abroad into all Countries especially those where they expect to meet with ready Compliants with their Doctrine and Way or at least such as would be fond of new Reformations and Changes in Religion being thus in some measure predisposed to receive and entertain their Advances Having thus spoken in General of the Conditions of these Men I come next to give a more particular Account of their Rise Progress various